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Ebola’s Teachable Moment

Maintaining community leadership may be the key to quicker responses in health crises, according to public health experts who studied Liberia’s control efforts during the Ebola outbreak.

A case study by David H. Peters of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Bloomberg alumnus Tolbert Nyenswah of Liberia, and Towson University’s Cyrus Y. Engineer found that “distributive leadership” was critical to curbing Liberia’s epidemic. Response teams, local leaders and communities had authority to take action and manage stakeholders.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to disease management, the authors say, but communities empowered to work closely with local, state and national governments may achieve better outcomes.Health Systems & Reform

Related: Leadership in Times of Crisis: A Personal Reflection from the Center of the Ebola Epidemic Response in Liberia – Health Systems & Reform